Bill Clinton stumps for Obama in Colorado

DENVER (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton stumped for President Barack Obama at two stops in Colorado on Tuesday, as Hurricane Sandy prompted the president to cancel his own event planned for today.

Clinton derided Republican Mitt Romney as vague and backward in remarks to a small, but enthusiastic, crowd of Democrats at a high school just north of Denver, and to a larger gathering in a central Denver high school Tuesday evening.

Obama scrapped a planned campaign event in Colorado Springs on Tuesday in order to monitor hurricane recovery efforts from Washington. Clinton filled in.

"You got people taking this seriously?" an incredulous Clinton rhetorically asked an absent Romney on what Clinton called fuzzy plans to erase the national debt. Clinton went on, "Some days I feel like I got lost in a fun house."

Clinton said Obama's plans are superior on education and health care. Clinton also credited the president for the death of Osama bin Laden and for expanding grants for needy college students.

The former president referenced Hurricane Sandy just once, during his earlier appearance. The crowd instantly hushed when Clinton started his remarks, "Back home in New York we've been having a tough time, as you all know."

After that reference Clinton launched into his stump speech for Obama, talking up the president and repeatedly saying Obama's plans are better and sharper than Romney's.

Clinton concluded by urging Democrats, "Go out and deliver Colorado for President Obama."

The hurricane also prompted Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to cancel a Colorado trip planned for Tuesday. Obama and Ryan both rescheduled events for Thursday, a day before early voting ends in Colorado.

The Romney campaign issued a statement Tuesday contending that Clinton's visit shows Obama is worried about Colorado, a state he carried by nine points in 2008.

"Today, his standing with Colorado voters couldn't be more different," Romney spokeswoman Ellie Wallace said. "Our nation is at a turning point and voters face a big choice in this election to change our country's course."